Toop&Toop took home the main prizes at the 2017 Real Estate Institute of South Australia’s Auctioneering Championship, with Bronte Manuel winning top auctioneer for the third year running, and his colleague, Kirk Fernandez, winning novice of the year. 

Manuel will now represent South Australia at the Australasian Auctioneering Championships in September, an event being held this year in Adelaide.

Manuel told SCHWARTZWILLIAMS he felt a lot of pressure in the lead up to the event.

"I felt a lot more pressure on myself this year with a lot of talk such as 'can you go three in a row', 'do you think you’ll pull off a hat-rick', and so on."

"Therefore after my auction call I had a lot of relief as I knew it was in the hands of the judges as to where I was positioned," he said. 

View Bronte Manuel's profile on Luxury List.

Five interstate judges scrutinising the five finalists’ every move, and Manuel was eventually named the winner of the event.

"My call was a far cry from my best therefore I was extremely surprised, but to be honest I was absolutely exhausted after a big two days of competing," he said. "It was all a bit of a blur," he admitted.

Manuel said the nature of auctioneering has changed, and auctioneers are expected to be entertaining, as well as being an authoritative figure.

"The auctioneer used to be this authoritative figure who demanded the crowd and bidders to do as they command. A great auctioneer now is conversational, relatable, natural in the delivery (doesn’t look like they’re doing a performance) and is able to lighten the nerves of the crowd and have buyers feeling comfortable and excited through the entertainment to bid."

Manuel said he travels to New Zealand to study the auctioneers there to prepare for the Australian event.

"I make my way over to New Zealand a couple times per year to catch up with a coach and a few auctioneers I look up to. We work a lot on my fluency and structure and more importantly good bidding flow."

He said it's "surprising" how many hundreds of components there are to being an Australasian standard auctioneer, and practitioners have to be exceptional in all components.

Manuel said he enjoys the auctioneering competition.

"Every year being locked up for between two and five hours, depending on your draw, with like-minded passionate auctioneers is always a highlight for me, sharing stories from the field, sharing funny one liners and just the overall banter is priceless," he said. 

He said he also enjoys watching such a high standard competition.

Manuel said while winning the competition won't necessarily have an impact on his auctioneering career, "breaking my call down, constant training and critiquing" will "increase the quality of my call in the field"; and that means "more agents will book you as an auctioneer and the more clients you are able to help with the techniques you know can extract that last dollar." 

Genevieve Toop CEO of Sales & Marketing at Toop&Toop said, “We are extremely proud of Bronte and his achievement, his passion and dedication to auctioneering is second to none”.

Fernandez said his initial reaction to his win was "shock", but once he had settled he said he was "delighted to be recognised for the time and that my effort invested in preparing for the competition was well worth it."
 
Fernandez said Manuel helped him prepare for the event with coaching and mock auctions.

Read more about the REI's auctioneering competitions:

Tom Esze takes home the main prize, again: REIWA 2017 Auctioneering Championship

Twenty-six-year-old Ned Allison is New Zealand's top auctioneer

Justin Nickerson is Australasian Auctioneer of 2016